Terms and conditions of use
Oedipus
(1931-1932)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
81.1 × 59.9 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1932
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
A fashionable society portrait painter in Britain in the 1910s and 1920s, Glyn Philpot experimented in 1931–32 with radical new paintings that engaged with Surrealism and the works of Pablo Picasso, while also revealing his hitherto hidden queerness. This painting features a strangely nubile and scantily clad Oedipus, who bears the noble features of Philpot’s handsome young German boyfriend Karl Heinz Müller. The Sphinx also echoes the controversial guardian spirit Jacob Epstein had carved in 1908–12 for Oscar Wilde’s tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Works like this one scandalised London’s art world in 1932, effectively destroying Philpot’s career. He became increasingly beset by financial problems, the stress of which may have led to his early death in 1937.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in red paint l.l.: G P
Accession Number
4663-3
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Religion and Mythology
Subjects (specific)
encountering legendary beings men (male humans) nudes (representations) Oedipus and the Sphinx (Greek narrative) Oedipus, King of Thebes (Greek character) sphinxes
Provenance
Exhibited Leicester Galleries, London, 1932; from where acquired, on the advice of Randall Davies, for the Felton Bequest, 1932.
Frame
Original, maker unknown
Frame
Oedipus appears in this frame on exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1932. It is a simple reverse moulding pine wood frame with a broad outer edge channel, prominent half round at the centre and stepped flats to the sight edge. The warm off-white gesso surface has been finished with stippled red earth and dark grey paint, an example of Philpot adopting a modernist frame. The use of fine weave linen covering the bevelled slip reflects the acceptance of linen slips during the 1930’s.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 20th century
Date
1932
Materials
timber profile with stippled, painted finish and linen slip
Frame Condition
good original condition